Tyrona Heath's Recent LinkedIn Posts

Your champion believes in you. They've seen the demo. They get the value. Then they walk into a meeting full of people who haven’t. Finance sees risk. Legal sees exposure. The CIO’s never heard of you. Now your champion has to carry the whole case alone. And when they're exposed, your deal is too. Our Buyability study with Bain found: 81% of won deals had broad awareness across the buying group from day one. When only the champion's function knew the vendor? Just 4% won. Your champion's conviction doesn't win the deal. The room's familiarity does. If your champion walks into that room alone, we didn't just miss awareness. We left them exposed. Shared this at #B2BMX last week. Grateful to Jamie Maw and Advertising Week for a strong event, and to Ashley Faus and Nancy Harhut and others for thought provoking sessions I’m still thinking about!

Most teams focus on sellability. Better decks. Better demos. Better objection handling. But here’s the reality: About 40% of B2B deals don’t go to a competitor. They go to no decision. That’s not a sellability problem. It’s a buyability problem. Buyability is how easy you make it for a buying group to say yes without risking their credibility. Because in complex B2B decisions: No one buys alone. And no one wants to be the person blamed if it goes wrong. The number one thing buyers need to feel is not confidence the solution will work. It’s confidence they could defend the decision if it didn’t. That’s the real bar. So the question isn’t just: Are we impressive? It’s: Are we defensible? If your deals are stalling, don’t just ask how to sell better. Ask where buyability is breaking. I’ll be unpacking this more on stage tomorrow at #B2BMX. Hope to see some of you there. 🙂

AI can now produce 7 out of 10 marketing content in 30 seconds. At massive scale. This is the world we're walking into. And it's why I'm speaking at Digital Cut 2026 (Feb 6-8) about something that might sound counterintuitive at a conference full of AI tools and automation platforms: Be memorable. Here's what LinkedIn's Economic Graph reveals: skill sets for marketing jobs have changed 25% since 2015. By 2027, that number doubles to 50%. Half the skills we'll need didn't matter a decade ago. But three things haven't changed: People buy from brands they remember They trust voices that exercise discernment They return to experiences that create genuine connection When AI gives everyone access to the same tools, the same data, the same production capability, your memorability is what makes you findable. In my session, I'm sharing: 1. What top companies are actually hiring for in the space of marketing and communications (using real-time data from 1.2B professionals) 2. Why distinctiveness beats uniformity in the age of infinite content 3. How to build brands that survive when everyone can produce "good enough" The question isn't "How do we use AI faster?" The question is "Who are we becoming? And what role do we play in shaping what comes next?" We have agency in this moment. The brands that matter won't be the ones producing the most content. They'll be the ones creating memories that last. See you at Digital Cut. Link in comments!

What would you tell your younger self before starting your business? I asked entrepreneurs for #SmallBusinessSaturday, and three themes came up again and again: → Find your niche (don't try to be everything to everyone) → Get feedback early and often (even when it's uncomfortable) → Lean into your network (you can't do this alone) Hear it directly from them 👇🏾 Nashae Roundtree Tina Louise Vasquez Lisa Fancyfied Francoeur 🇭🇹 Marcel ("Cel") Anderson Liz J. Simpson Illianna Acosta Stella Ashaolu Jasmine Shells Nina Blankenship What's the one tip you'd add to this list? #Afrotech2025

#ADCOLOR2025 reminded me why this community matters so much, especially now. The theme this year was CTRL + ALT + LIFT, and it landed exactly when we needed it. Twenty years in, ADCOLOR remains what it's always been: rejuvenating, restorative, and a reunion for people committed to progress. LinkedIn was proud to host a dinner, sponsor the Leaderboard challenge as the networking sponsor, and bring our mainstage conversation to life. Our panel explored the idea that "when everything changes, community becomes your compass." And here's what I got: Action over paralysis. We can acknowledge difficulty without staying stuck in it. The bridge between "I'm struggling" and "here's what I do next" is shorter than we think. Action creates confidence for more action. Faith over fear. Not blind optimism, but trust in community, process, and your own capacity. When you're scared (about AI, job security, the future), lean into what you know: your people, your skills, your ability to adapt. Agency through community. Autonomy doesn't come from going it alone. It comes from doing something, learning something, reaching out to someone. Small moves create momentum. Technology isn't the threat. Isolation is. A question: How are you showing up right now? Not perfectly. Not with all the answers. Just present, in action, with faith that your community will meet you there. Thank you Rosanna Durruthy, Jayde I. Powell, Stanley Lumax, David Roter for these gems 💎 . 📸 Swipe for some meaningful moments. Thank you Tiffany R. Warren Ana Leen. ✨ Jacqueline Jones Chelsea Snow Tonya Garrett Natasha Hibbert Jessy Jacques Tamara Woods Andea Campbell Thamina Stoll Nakaiya Turk Keenan Blalark Julia (Cabral) Flavin Melanie English Kim Chitra Kristen Spillane Vonisha Jackson Luiza Cocito Emily K. Graham Gena Pemberton Jason Rosario Roo Yeshpaul Johnson Susie Nam Kimberly King CP McBee

Last week I joined the brilliant Alexis Solorio 🏳️‍🌈, Grace Niu, and Vin Matano 🐝 on stage at Creator Economy Live West to talk about employee-generated content. Many companies treat employees like distribution vehicles. Billboards in suits. But 87% of B2B buyers prefer content from trusted industry voices over brand messaging. Why? Because in B2B, influence doesn't come from a halo of celebrity. It comes from a halo of credibility. Your employees aren't just who does the work. They're who make your company believable. (And their combined network reach is 12x larger than your company page.) Thanks to the Creator Economy Live team Hubie Watt and Taz Zembashis for having us! And stay tuned for my full article recap on this topic! 😉

I’m honored to share that I’ll be serving as Jury President for the Creative B2B Lions at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This one feels especially meaningful. I’ve spent much of my career at the intersection of research, strategy, and creative ambition in B2B. Studying how businesses actually buy. Working with teams to move beyond purely rational product storytelling. Arguing that the people making “business decisions” are still humans, shaped by memory, emotion, social proof, and mental shortcuts. For a long time, B2B creativity was treated as the practical cousin of “real” creativity. Constrained. Functional. Safe. But the environment has changed. Buying has grown more complex. Markets are more crowded. And now, with AI accelerating sameness, distinctiveness and memorability matter more than ever. The brands that grow are not just clear. They are remembered. That is why creative excellence in B2B matters. And why recognition matters. Awards are not just celebrations. They are signals. They help define what “good” looks like. They influence what gets funded, what gets briefed, and what teams feel permitted to make. As Jury President, I see the role as stewardship. To honor the mission of the Creative B2B Lions by spotlighting work that is not only clever, but enduring. Not only beautifully crafted, but grounded in how real buying decisions happen. Work that proves creativity in B2B is not a constraint. It’s a growth lever. Grateful to help spotlight the teams pushing this category forward, and to be part of a moment where B2B creativity is being taken seriously at the highest level of our industry. Massive gratitude to the trailblazing Jury Presidents of the Creative B2B Lions. I am so proud to carry the torch. Thank you -- Paul Hirsch, Tom Stein, Andisa Ntsubane and Wendy Walker. Ready to set the bar? Enter your work before 9 April and find everything you need here: https://lnkd.in/eEvrDvAD Luiza Cocito, Andrew Monu (he/him), Davang Shah, Jessica Jensen

Professional doesn’t mean boring. It means culturally fluent. “Professional” has become a code word for safe, polished… and completely ignorable. Meanwhile, B2B buyers spend just as much time on social as consumer audiences. They discover new tools there. They learn from creators there. They validate decisions in communities there. So the real question for enterprise brands isn’t: “How do we sound more professional?” It’s: “Do we understand the culture of the feed?” The brands breaking through look different from the traditional B2B playbook. They elevate executive voices. They collaborate with creators. They tell stories that feel native to the platform. And yes… they show personality. In other words, they earn attention. I’ll be digging into this at Social Media Week New York 2026 with Suzanne Lindbergh from Intuit on April 16. We’ll talk about: • Executive voices on social • Creator partnerships in B2B • Platform-native storytelling • Understanding the culture of the social feed If you’re planning to attend Social Media Week New York 2026, come say hello. Link to join in comments!

A surprising amount of great B2B work never makes it to Cannes. Not because it isn’t strong enough. Because the teams behind it decide not to enter. As Jury President for the Creative B2B Lions at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, I wanted to address a few myths that keep B2B campaigns out of the running. Because the truth is: Some of the most celebrated B2B work has been scrappy, unconventional, and creatively brave. In the article, (please click to read below) I break down: • 5 myths that keep B2B teams from entering Cannes • What juries actually look for • A simple walkthrough of the entry process • The April 9 deadline If your team is considering entering this year, I hope it helps. And if you're on the fence, this might be the nudge you need. See you in Cannes!

What actually builds trust? Your title opens the door. Your tenure earns you a seat. But neither one is what earns trust. On March 5th at Nasdaq HQ, that's what we're unpacking. Her Workplace Elevate Her Summit. NYC. Join me, Lorraine K. Lee, Alexandra Carter, Meenakshi Lala and more. Reg link in the comments.

Coming out of an reflective few days in Nashville with dentsu at #DentsuImpact26. I joined Sonya Lombardi for a fireside on building trust in an AI-driven world. The brands people trust instinctively are the ones buyers turn to when the stakes are high and the options are overwhelming. It comes down to one question: When your buyers are uncertain, does your name reduce their anxiety or increase it? That's it. That's what you're actually building. The feeling of safety when someone has to defend a decision to their leadership team. AI systems are already doing a first pass on buyer shortlists. They're scanning for expert commentary, peer validation, consistent credible signal over time. The authority you build now isn't just earning human trust. It's becoming the citation layer that determines whether you're surfaced at all. Thank you to the Dentsu team for creating such a thoughtful space to explore these ideas! Charlie Cardona Kristy Carlson Zoe Fernandez

I'm a huge sci-fi fan. Foundation, Star Trek, Octavia Butler, Black Mirror, all of it. I love sci-fi not because it predicts the future, but because it helps us process the present. It shows us who we're becoming and gives us time to decide if that's who we want to be. At the Future of Communications Conference, I opened my keynote with that confession. Because right now we're living through a moment that feels very sci-fi. AI reached 100 million users in two months. The breakthrough timeline keeps compressing. But what makes this different from every technology before it is the fact that AI speaks our language. And when technology can speak, persuade, and create meaning, our role as communicators doesn't shrink, it becomes more critical. Because someone has to decide: What should be created? What messages deserve to spread? When is "good enough" actually harmful? Those aren't technical questions. They're human questions. And they're landing squarely on our profession. Here's what I shared with that room: As marketers and communicators, we're not just experiencing this moment. We're shaping it. We decide which narratives take hold. We create the memories that last. I'll be unpacking more in the coming weeks on what it means to become architects of meaning in an age of infinite content. For now, I'm just grateful to be part of a community thinking seriously about who we're becoming and what comes next. Thank you Alyssa Smith and Ragan Communications and PR Daily Team for the opportunity to share. Jalima (Holly) Subervi, Regine Nelson, MBA 😁 🖖🏽

True North doesn’t change when the landscape does. I’m stepping into a new role as Global Director, Thought Leadership GTM Strategy for LinkedIn Marketing, and closing a chapter as Director & Co-Founder of the B2B Institute. There’s a lot shifting right now. In the world. In our industry. In how we work. What hasn’t changed is my mission: helping leaders cut through noise and make better decisions by translating marketing science into clear, actionable insight. I’m incredibly proud of The B2B Institute. The frameworks. The mental models. The move from theory to practice. The community that turned evidence into impact. And I’m not going far. I’ll continue this work inside the LinkedIn Marketing organization with a wider aperture, helping bring insights from marketing research, behavioral science, and cognitive psychology to leaders globally. What we need right now isn’t more information. It’s more clarity. More focus on what actually works. And more courage to invest in people, meaning, stories, and evidence rather than distraction. To my B2B Institute teammates past and present: working alongside you has been the honor of my career. What we built matters. 💙 And to the leaders trying to stay focused on what matters: I see you.

Talent without a platform is a tragedy. Creativity without investment is a loss we all bear. Last week in Kingston, I watched my talented friend John Campbell introduce The Rhythm of Jamaican Art and hosted a gathering. His documentary, years in the making, was born from a simple, necessary belief: Jamaican artists deserve more than just our admiration. They deserve investment, infrastructure, and the world’s stage. I love watching talent receive the platform they deserve. Sheryl Lee Ralph’s bold voice. Tiana Webb Evans-Evans on why preserving Jamaican visual arts history is an urgent mandate, not an option. Artists like Camille Chedda, Nari Ward, Paul Anthony Smith, and Malene Barnett, Acquille Dunkley and others speaking on identity, the diaspora, and the grit required to build a creative life when the ecosystem is still forming. Art is more than decoration; it’s an asset. It is an ambassador of expression that communicates what policy papers can't and heals what economics alone won’t touch. It challenges our thinking, preserves our collective memory, and ensures people see themselves reflected with dignity. If you want to understand a culture, look at its art. If you want to support a culture, invest in its artists. John, Tiana, and every artist featured: thank you for reminding us why this work matters. The screening was also a reminder of the work ahead. Hurricane Melissa’s impact in October 2025 was staggering, $6 billion in damage, representing 30% of Jamaica's GDP. Communities in Saint Elizabeth, Westmoreland, and Saint James continue to rebuild. How to help: support the recovery efforts through The American Friends of Jamaica, Inc.. Please join me in donating if you can. (Link in the comments)

How about a 5-course dinner for marketers where every dish tells a story? Years ago, we started publishing Contrarian Trends at The B2B Institute. The whole premise: the most valuable marketing ideas live where conventional wisdom says one thing and the evidence says another. Contrarian and right. That's the bar. We've now built a library of frameworks designed to be durable, not trendy. Ideas you can still use five years from now. At our recent NYC dinner, we had a great time making those ideas taste like something. Five courses. Five ideas. Each dish designed to anchor an insight to a sensory experience. What surprised me: I needed this more than I expected. A room full of marketers laughing, chatting, calling out "wait, that's so true." The LinkedIn Collective community showed up! Real conversation. Real connection. We are grateful. Thank you to my wonderful co-host Vita Molis, to Danielle Hydro and Derek Yueh who poured energy into every detail, to Tasmin Byron-Day and Meghan Brockmeyer for top tier partnership. Members of the LinkedIn Collective, and to everyone who made it feel like the best kind of dinner party. If you want a head start, years of frameworks live here: https://lnkd.in/e5dkwiF7 More to come. ✨

Most companies are asking the wrong question about employee content. They’re asking: how do we scale distribution? But distribution isn’t the constraint. Trust is. The real question is: Who do people actually believe when a decision feels risky? In B2B, the answer is rarely “the brand.” It’s a person. Someone who sounds like they’ve been inside the work. Someone whose judgment feels earned. That’s not a content trend. It’s a shift toward distributed trust. And once you see it, a lot of common practices stop making sense: • You don’t scale it like a campaign • You don’t script it without killing it • You don’t measure it like demand gen Because what you’re actually building isn’t content. It’s credibility at scale. In this week’s Escape Velocity, I unpack: • Why employee content behaves more like consensus infrastructure • The hidden buyers stalling 40%+ of deals • What breaks most employee creator programs before they start

Most books inform you. A few books change how you see yourself. Those are not the same thing. Information accumulates. Transformation integrates. And only one of them creates the space between stimulus and response where real growth happens. I share three books that marked clear before-and-after moments for me: The Untethered Soul strengthened my metacognition All About Love reframed love as action, not feeling The Mountain Is You showed me self-sabotage as adaptation, not failure Different genres. Same effect: they changed where I was thinking from. Here's a question I'm curious about: What book changed you? Not just informed you, changed you. If you're comfortable, I'd love to know what shifted. How it altered how you see yourself, your relationships, your work. I'll start my reading list with what you share. 🖖🏽

What if being memorable actually led to being bought? In B2B, awareness without availability is just expensive noise. Our latest research with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that winning brands don't just build recall, they architect their presence across the 32+ touchpoints where buying actually happens. The gap between "I know them" and "I can find them" is where growth lives. Learn how leading marketers are mastering presence, prominence, and portfolio strategy to turn recognition into revenue. Download the report: https://lnkd.in/e_VGbkpP #TheB2BInstitute

"You're planting demand. Your competitors are harvesting it." That line from my conversation on the Sleeping Barber - A Marketing Podcast captures one of the next frontiers for growth in B2B marketing today. You've run great campaigns. Built mental availability. Invested in brand. Buyers know your name. They'd consider you. But when they're ready to purchase, you're not where they're looking. Maybe you're not at the trade show where decisions get made. Maybe your website is too confusing to navigate. Maybe you don't have sales coverage in their region. So they default to your competitor. Not because your competitor has better brand awareness. Because your competitor is easier to find and easier to buy from. This is the physical availability problem. In this interview, I shared research from The B2B Institute and Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, led by Kate Newstead, Jenni Romaniuk, and Magda Nenycz-Thiel, on the three levers: 1. Presence (being where buying happens) 2. Prominence (standing out distinctively) 3. Portfolio (making your offering shoppable). We also tackled some provocative questions: Why are events ubiquitous but undervalued? What happens to brands without distinctive assets as AI reshapes discovery? Why do most B2B portfolios destroy conversion instead of enabling it? If you've ever felt like your marketing is generating awareness but not driving growth, this conversation might explain why. Full episode AND link to get the research linked in comments. Thank you Marc Binkley and Vassilis K. Douros for the opportunity to share.

Workday's Rock Star campaign is one of my favs. I was on the judging committee when it won a Creative B2B Lion at Cannes, and it stuck with me then for the same reasons it sticks now, it's memorable, fun, and distinct. Here's the breakdown down on why it works: Celebrity as cognitive insurance – Gwen Stefani's face buys precious seconds most B2B brands can't afford to lose, and converts them into narrative fuel Schema violations – Billy Idol in a shirt and tie forces your brain to reconcile the mismatch between rock star and corporate type, locking the joke into memory Double meaning as memory device – The word "agents" works overtime: Hollywood handler to rock stars, AI tool to executives. That cognitive friction makes it stick Branding at emotional peaks – The Workday logo doesn't just appear, it shows up at moments of humor and tension. When branding lands at the laugh, it becomes the memory Endings that resolve – Paul Stanley's "Goodnight!" closes the loop on the opening question. That callback compresses the whole story into one final cue The lesson? Great creative isn't just entertaining. It's engineered for how memory actually works. Major kudos to Workday - Erik Petersen, Erin Olivero and Team for letting this idea fly, and shoutout to Derek Yueh and Haley Pierce helping to capture the story and cover the science behind why it delivers. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/e29uFEvn

Let's talk about buying committees that never make decisions at all. Deals don’t stall because buyers lose interest. They stall because groups can’t align around a choice they feel safe defending. At #B2BMX (March 9-11 in Carlsbad), I’m sharing a framework we’ve been building with Bain & Company: Buyability. Buyability isn't just about your champion. It’s about how easy you make it for an entire group to say "yes" without risking their professional credibility. If you’re a marketer ready to help your best opportunities cross the finish line, this session is for you. Link to the full event agenda in the comments.

Humans trust humans.   In feeds full of polished content, real voices are the ones that stand out. Creators don’t just amplify messages. They help buyers interpret complex ideas, pressure-test options, and decide what truly matters to them.   Trust is the signal that cuts through the noise. Human perspective is what lasts.   Check out ANA’s latest article on how B2B brands are humanizing their messaging to learn more: https://lnkd.in/efg7yxfK Thank you John Obrecht! Appreciate the opportunity to share!

Most B2B brands rightfully obsess over being remembered. But the next billion-dollar question is actually: "Can they find us when they're ready to buy?" Converting awareness into revenue requires mastering three interconnected elements: The Findability Framework 1. Presence over absence: Show up where buying actually happens, not just where it's comfortable to market 2. Prominence over invisibility: Stand out in competitive sales environments instead of blending into the background 3. Portfolio over proliferation: Offer the right products without diluting your focus or your budget Microsoft is a masterclass in this (forgive the shameless plug - genuinely a great example). They don't just create AI products and hope people find them. They weave AI into Office, Azure, and Teams (the places where work already happens). That's presence. They use distinctive assets across every touchpoint. That's prominence. They enhance core products instead of creating resource-competing standalone offerings. That's portfolio. Being easy to mind is marketing. Being easy to find is revenue. Consider which of these three Ps is your biggest gap right now? And find the link to the report in the comments section. #B2BMarketing #PhysicalAvailability #BrandStrategy Ehrenberg-Bass Institute The B2B Institute

Earlier this week I was in your feed about Cannes. This one's for the creators of thought leadership. Earning trust and influencing decisions is what separates serious thought leadership from noise. That's what the Thought Leadership for Tomorrow (TLFT) Awards are built to recognize, work that holds up under scrutiny and actually moves the conversation forward. As Head Judge for the second year running, I can't wait to see thought provoking work. If you've been meaning to submit an entry: the deadline is Friday, March 27. This year's awards recognize B2B thought leadership across five categories: 1. Brand Elevation 2. Commercial Excellence 3. Industry Catalyst 4. Research Innovation 5. Storytelling Entries are evaluated on the 4Rs: Revenue, Relationships, Reputation, and Real-World Impact, plus research integration and storytelling. If your work makes a difference, this is your moment. Enter here: https://lnkd.in/ghX4pG3r Thanks Yogesh Shah, Madelaine Oppert, Brittany Williams, MA, MBA, and the iResearch Services Team for creating the space.

We just dropped our LinkedIn 2026 Skills on the Rise in Marketing list. Most people will read it as a ranked list. I want to offer a different lens. These aren't 10 separate skills competing for space on your resume. They're a connected ecosystem. And when you look at them that way, a clear pattern emerges. Three clusters show up in the data: The Strategic Layer -- GTM Strategy, Performance Analysis, Operational Efficiency. This is how you think. How you plan. How you connect marketing activity to business outcomes. The Human Layer -- Team Collaboration, Community Engagement, Client Prospecting. This is how you build trust. How you move people. How you create relationships that compound over time. The Expression Layer -- Visual Storytelling, Social Media Branding, AI Literacy. This is how you communicate. How you create. How you show up in a crowded market and get remembered. Here's what the data is really telling us: technical skills and human skills aren't competing anymore. They're converging. The professionals pulling ahead in 2026 aren't the ones who've gone deep on one cluster. They're the ones developing fluency across all three -- and more importantly, understanding how they connect. GTM mastery isn't a single skill. It never was. It's what happens when strategic thinking, human connection, and compelling expression work together. The list is just showing us the ingredients. And here's what I find genuinely exciting about this: none of it is fixed talent. These are learnable skills. The path is visible. LinkedIn's data is pointing the way. The question isn't which skill is most important. The question is: which cluster are you underinvesting in?